Illinois Issues receives five national journalism awards for reports, commentary about state government

Illinois Issues won five national journalism awards in the 2010 statehouse reporting contest sponsored by Capitolbeat, the association of state capitol reporters and editors.

Columnist Charles N. Wheeler III won first place in the Commentary/Column/Analysis category for magazines for his Ends & Means columns. Wheeler also won a third place award in the In-Depth category for magazines for his examination of the state’s pension problem that appeared in the February issue.

Statehouse Bureau Chief Jamey Dunn won third place in the Online Beat Reporting category for her reports on the Illinois Issues Blog and third place in the Magazine-Single Report category for her article about the state’s backlog of unpaid bills, which appeared in the March issue.

Executive Editor Dana Heupel won a second place award in the Commentary/Column/Analysis category for magazines for his Editor’s Note columns.

Amanda Vinicky, statehouse reporter for WUIS and Illinois Public Radio, won third place in the Radio-Beat Reporting category. WUIS is a sister unit of Illinois Issues in the Center for State Policy and Leadership at the University of Illinois Springfield.

Other Illinois winners include:

John O’Connor of the Springfield bureau of the Associated Press, first place in the Large Newspaper/Wire – In-Depth category for his reports on an early prison release program under the Illinois Department of Corrections. O’Connor also won a second place award in the Large Newspaper/Wire – Single Report category for a story about racial disparities in school discipline.

Bernard Schoenburg of the Springfield State Journal-Register, first place in the Commentary/Column/Analysis category for small newspapers.

Kevin Lee of Illinois Statehouse News and Suzanne McBride of ChicagoTalks, who both received first place awards in the Online – In-Depth category for articles about Illinois General Assembly scholarships.

Tim Novak, Art Golab, Chris Fusco and Dave McKinney of the Chicago Sun-Times, third place in the Large Newspaper/Wire – In-Depth category for an examination of public pensions in Chicago, Cook County and state government.

The awards were announced November 13 during Capitolbeat’s annual conference in Phoenix.